Bron Bias

Well first up, I think with past blogging it's pretty clear that my own bias is as a 'LeBron' hater. But if you had been following the playoffs, as I have, then yesterday ou would be hard pressed not to sympathise with my stance.

Basically what happened was that Orlando almost won game 2 in Cleveland of the Magic vs Cavs series. This would have been dramatic and upsetting by itself for a team with a 39-2 win-loss record at home in the regular season. Except that two days earlier Magic had beaten them at home in game 1. After wiping out a 16 point halftime deficit. Cavs' coach Mike Brown won 'coach of the year' and Lebron took home the MVP trophy. The Cavs had the leagues best regular season record. But I digress, what happened was that in the final seconds of Game 2 the Cavs were down by a point facing humiliation at the hands of Orlando. They got the ball into Lebron's hands for a buzzer-beater (basically getting off a shot before the 'final siren' as we would call it in AFL, although in AFL you only have to mark it before the final siren and be within range of goal). And he got it in.

My Issue with Lebron:

My issue is not strictly with Lebron, the only thing I have against Lebron personally is that he adore's Jay-Z and wears another man's number on his jersey. I've never heard the Jay-Z song that is supposed to make me respect him, I'm assuming it's not the hook up with Lincoln park, and wearing Jordan's number is perhaps the worst decision Lebron ever made.
But really my issue is with Nike, Slam magazine, Cleveland and the NBA, and I've reiterated it time and time again. Basically these four big spenders have spent between them perhaps 100 million promoting Lebron as the biggest thing in basketball. The times they are a changing wrote Bob Dylan, and yes it's certainly changed since back in the day when a player became a celebrity after actually achieving something.

Jordan at least had the class to win the Slam Dunk contest to highlight his air-jordans. He also wore damn good shoes, something Lebron is yet to manage. By all accounts I hear Lebron is a nice guy. I probably wouldn't describe Jordan as a nice guy, from what I've heard about him. Civil enough, but I would have said 'fierce, fierce competitor' before 'nice'.

But yeah the 'media' current is with Lebron, SLAM ran a story on the 'Lebron vs. Kobe' debate, to me it is hands down Kobe Bryant, the achievements are stacked up with him, 3 championship rings, 1 MVP, a bunch of scoring titles, 5 All Star MVPs (the Grammys of MVP awards) 1 Gold Medal, A Slam Dunk winner, 3 time NBA photo of the year...

And well, I know already that Lebron's Game 2 buzzer beater will probably now be the NBA photo of the year. Alas...

Here is what under normal media scrutiny the buzzer beater would be reported as - 'Lebron sinks last second shot to save team from incredible embarassment'. It was not a good thing, not even a great thing, it was game 2, not 'championship point', buzzer beaters happen all the time. Like the numerous buzzer beaters Ray Allen sank AGAIN & AGAIN in the Celtics vs Chicago series. That I found more impressive than a team with the best track record saving itself from going 0-2 at home.
I think logic would interpret it not as a great play, but for a team that was up by 23 points at Q1 time, a major embarassment that it even came to that.

It is though instead being interpreted as some fucking 'nail in the coffin' for Orlando, which is looking at the very real prospect of now taking a 3-1 lead in the series, and have rested home court advantage away from the cavs. NBA fans are being invited to rate 'the shot' amongst the best clutch plays of all time. I would rate it near the bottom.
It is being compared to Jordan's 'last shot' (at Chicago) were he sank a buzzer beater against Utah to steal the 6th championship. Even if you look at the two (NBA.com has a dedicated gallery) you will notice that Jordan's last shot has an electrified crowd on their toes watching in barely contained excitement, Lebron's shot if you look at the crowd is the lacklustre Cleveland crowd, that need a recorded loop 'Defence' to even make noise for them. Lebron has not lit up Cleveland like Vegas, Cleveland is a shithole:


I would not blame Lebron if he drops this series from moving to the New York Knicks, where a crowd might actually make some fucking noise for him when the opposition is hammering them with 3's. It's the first time I've seen the Cavs play at home when they have had a lead wittled away by a visitor, not when they had their arses handed to them by the Lakers while Kobe was sick. Lebron SHOULD go to the Knicks.

The NBA, Cavs, Nike & SLAM should just shut the fuck up and let the man play. The most intelligent contributor to the 'Lebron vs Kobe' debate in the ever diminishing in quality publication known as Slam, was one that to paraphrase said: 'Kobe's gone to the gym and perfected his game like no-other, if size didn't matter I would say he is the best, but size does matter and so Lebron is the future.' Even I would conceed that Lebron is the best in the same sense as 'you are only as good as the last game you played' sense, but if that was taken as literally, then it would be Kobe who played a much better game 3 in Denver, than Lebron did at home.

But yes, just let Lebron be Lebron, stop trying to make him something that he isn't yet. Yes he may only be weeks away from starting down that road. But it's still risky, because Lebron is no more Shaq than he is Jordan, and Mo Williams is not Kobe Bryant or Dwayne Wade to his Shaq, nor Scottie Pippen to his Jordan. Not by a long shot.

To those who know AFL, this is the biggest craw-sticker for me, remember when Gary Ablett Jnr aka 'Gary Ablett' first started playing AFL. Geelong wanted him to the be the next Gary 'God' Ablett, luckily the rest of the league (the vast majority) knew better. Eventually all the wishful overhype from Geelong supporters calmed the fuck down and Gary was allowed to just be Gary. He shaved his head and in four years was shitting all over the pathetic Port Adelaide in history's most one-sided and boring Grand Final ever, truly the best and most entertaining part of the match started when the final siren went. Now imagine, if that wishful thinking wasn't just amongst the crazy backward hicks that populate Geelong, but simply every single NBA commentator, Nike Billboard and Basketball magazine cover.

They hope that Lebron is some superstar like Jordan, or perhaps even Lance Armstrong, but he won't be until he is. So stop acting like he is already. He swept the Detroit Pistons, the worst team in the East, then the Atlanta Hawks who were slightly better than the Heat. Meanwhile back in the wild west, Lakers dropped one to the Utah Jazz a team coming down with one of the up and coming point guards of the league, then went on to play Houston, a team whose crowd actually makes noise and has in Ron Artest and Shane Battier arguably the two best stoppers in the League who rightfully pushed them to 7 games. Denver will probably push them close to 7 too. The point being that the Lakers are doing it tough, they are crawling through fire to get to the Finals whereas so far Lebron and the Cavs have been having tea and biscuits against some of the weakest teams the playoffs have offered.

Ironically, I'm pretty sure the Lakers would rather face the Cavs in the Finals than Denver right now, or Orlando in the Finals. They have been the tough fucking competitors.

So yes, as before Lebron = Overrated. And I don't think you can argue that. Another good contribution to Slam's 'Kobe vs Lebron' debate said: 'Kobe, because Kobe is hated, people don't want him to succeed, and he rode through all that and is still top of the game, Lebron, everybody loves Lebron he has it easy' again I'm paraphrashing but yes, Kobe goes and he is little and succeeds on his own. I wouldn't say that Lebron doesn't have haters, but certainly he seems to recieve adoration by acclamation from the media in the limelight.

'The World Will Witness...' was the big build up to Lebron's Olympic campaign and what did we see? Kobe destroy teams and go sit down on a bench, and the resurgance of Dwayne Wade. Nothing much from Lebron, the coach wouldn't tolerate any 'pimp my shoe' shit.